French firm Essilor to leverage on tech, set up more physical stores

China’s increasingly sophisticated consumer market and its world-class internet ecosystem will fuel fresh momentum for French lens producer Essilor Group, according to a senior company executive.

The high double-digit growth of the Chinese market — and a 5.3 percent surge in global revenue last year — stands to further accelerate through effective local partnerships and digitalization endeavors, said Arnaud Ribadeau Dumas, president of Essilor in China.

The allure of the $10 billion dollar consumer market lies in the paradox between the lack of access to proper optical stores and the adoption of technologies to revamp traditional industries including the eyewear sector, Dumas told China Daily in Shanghai.

“In China, one (optical) store serves roughly 30,000 people, whereas in developed economies like France or the United States, the ratio is roughly one is to 7,000,” he said.

To enhance the domestic penetration rate, the ophthalmic optics specialist has combined efforts of adding physical outlets with the better leverage of the internet, which Dumas deemed a more efficient way to educate consumers.

To Dumas, China is one step ahead of the world by defining omni-channel commerce, where the dichotomy between online and offline is being blurred thanks to technology.

“A seamless online-to-offline scenario is that one can get eye-related health knowledge online, make appointments with the ophthalmologist, and get delivery of tailor-made glasses,” he said.

Essilor has introduced 110 visual health screen machines to China through a partnership with Nova Vision, an optometry service provider that operates 1,200 retail stores under the name Baodao Optical.

These devices can screen thousands of biological parameters of the human eye in just 90 seconds, circumventing the need to shuffle between the hospital and the optical store.

A digital test report can also be sent to people’s phones quickly, thanks to a service transmitting a user’s ophthalmic data to his or her WeChat account.

The virtual Vision-iBook will then present data on test records, recommendations on preventive care and other optometrist assessments in an intuitive manner.

“With people relying heavily on their mobile phones nowadays, there are increasing physical and mental health risks caused by eye diseases,” said Jim Wang, chairman of Nova Vision.

“People urgently need a professional platform to obtain knowledge about their eyes and visual protection.”